


Ramble On

by catsmiaow



Category: Supernatural
Genre: POV Castiel, brothers being brothers, midnight in the impala
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 20:43:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11298483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsmiaow/pseuds/catsmiaow
Summary: Another night, another hunt.  What's time anyway?For ghostlife, my favorite Dean from Dreamwidth.





	Ramble On

**Sometimes I grow so tired,  
but I know I've got one thing I got to do.**  
_Ramble On,_ Led Zeppelin

"...all over my shirt, Dean."

"I am so, so sorry, Sammy. Next time I'll ask the vampire to take a step to the left before I gank it. You know your wardrobe means everything to me."

 

Castiel sat quietly in the backseat, letting the familiar bickering from the front soothe him. It was only the Impala on the road this late at night. It seemed to the angel that an eternity of rain soaked blacktop stretched out in front of them. The moon hid behind the clouds, only the car's headlights picking out what was ahead of them. He didn't worry. Dean had driven in worse. Baby's purring engine and the low bass thud of whatever music Dean had chosen felt good.

Like Castiel imagined 'home' did to humans.

 

"You could have given me time to get further away. I think I lost some hair when you swung that machete down!"

"I'll let L'Oréal know right away."

"Jerk."

"Bitch. You know how their stock depends on your fabulous hair. Can't you think of anyone but yourself?" 

 

_Traveling Riverside Blues_.

That's what it was, Castiel decided. One of Dean's favorites. 

 

"Cas? Earth to Cas. Come in."

 

His eyes met Dean's in the rearview mirror, refocusing on the conversation that Castiel had tuned out after the insults started. Angels had nothing on humans when it came to a good insult war, but on the other hand, not many of their insults translated well to Enochian. No use learning a good slur when it couldn't be used later. 

 

"I'm still present here on Earth, Dean."

"You get Star Wars but not that."

"I don't see where I would 'come in' from either. I'm already inside the car."

 

The look the brothers shared and Castiel assumed the twin eyerolls was as comforting as the rest. 

 

"It's a saying. Don't worry about it."

"I was not worrying about anything."

Sam saved Dean from more frustration. "You were there, Cas. Dean could have given me a few seconds to get out of the way before he killed that vampire, couldn't he? He did it on purpose. He knew that mess was going to get all over my new shirt."

"I didn't even notice you had a new anything, Sam. Bit more focused on the thing with all the pointy teeth than today's fashion statement. I didn't notice you holding back any either when it came to chopping up the undead."

 

Castiel turned his eyes back to the window. He could already pick out familiar landmarks that marked home. What had felt like minutes ago they had been in the middle of nowhere. Now the Impala's engine was idling as the door went up to let it into the garage. Castiel's eyes closed, shutting out what he knew would be the Impala rolling past the lines of cars and bikes, Dean backing it into the space he had claimed for Baby. His beloved Baby.

The friendly arguing continued as the car doors opened and then slammed shut. Their voices faded as a door opened and closed. Only then did Castiel open his eyes. Rain still streaked and beaded on the Impala's windows. Even with the blurring, he could see the garage outside. Dust laid thick on vehicles that were starting to sit crookedly on rotting rubber tires. Spider webs hung like shrouds between them and to the walls. If he opened his door, Castiel knew he would see the tracks from the Impala leaving and returning on the cement floor. There would be no footprints.

Spirits that didn't know they were ghosts didn't bother to leave those prints like a living person would.

If he bothered to go into the Bunker, something he hadn't for a decade or more, the lights would still be dead and all systems turned off. On the day the Winchester brothers had died, Castiel had shut the entire place down. He wanted nothing to do with any of it. No hunting, no helping, no nothing. 

There hadn't even been bodies for him to burn. The demons had seen to that.

The only Grace he had bothered to use since then was to keep the Impala from falling into disrepair. How long had he sat in the backseat of it, just remembering? More than a month, he supposed. There had been a fine coating of grit on him when he realized the car's engine had started. Blinking away the dust, Castiel had dropped his blade into his hand. He hadn't bothered figuring out how someone got into the locked Bunker or into the car, muchless started it. The keys had gone with Dean. All that made its way through his dulled thoughts had been that no one was going to steal the Winchesters' car, the last link he had to them.

No one had been in the driver's seat. Not then. It took another month before the brothers manifested fully, first Dean and then Sam. Castiel had never had any of the questions that the brothers had when Bobby had come back to them as a ghost. Not when he had his family back.

The Impala would have to be salted and burnt. Castiel knew that, same as he knew the DW and SW was on the front dash. He might have sucked as a hunter, but even he could see that the brothers were becoming more violent with every hunt. Excuses were easy - these were monsters, killers that deserved it. But even a vampire didn't deserve hacked to bits as the last had been. All Castiel had done was watch in silent horror as the ghosts attacked the vampires. If Sam's clothes had been able of being stained by blood, he would have been solid red from head to toe.

Soon, he told himself. A few more day or weeks. Maybe a year. It wasn't as if they had killed anyone innocent. 

( _Not yet_ , a traitorous part of his mind whispered.)

He would do it. When he had to. Until then, he'd just wait here for the next time that the Impala started itself, that the laughter and bickering began from the front seat as Sam and Dean came into being again. When they could be family again. When he wouldn't be facing eternity alone.

He'd just wait here.


End file.
